UPDATE: Luton has more than three times as many cases as Bedford in one day

As of today (December 9), Bedford has 30 new cases of coronavirus, with a total of 3,592 people now diagnosed with the deadly virus, according to the latest figures from Public Health England.

There were no deaths in Central Bedfordshire (265), one death in Bedford (209) and one death in Luton (226).

Last Wednesday, the town - which had been in the medium tier before lockdown - was lumped in with the whole of the county in the 'high' Tier 2 with Luton currently recording over 3,000 more cases than Bedford.

Central Bedfordshire has 66 new Covid cases with a total of 4,065 - while Luton recorded 98 with a new total of 6,620.

Meanwhile, Buckinghamshire now has 8,457 cases of Covid, Hertfordshire has 19,837 and Milton Keynes has 4,467 cases.

The new figures are recorded between 5pm the previous day to 5pm.

Nationally, the number of coronavirus cases has risen by 16,578 and now stands at 1,766,819. The number of deaths has risen by 533 to 62,566.

The figures come from the Government website which is available for the public to view here